Gas: does it matter where you buy it?

This has probably been talked about before but I feel its an important topic.

Where should I buy gas? Who has the cleanest, and best performing fuel?

I ask this as I had a fuel gauge problem and after using BP fuel it is no longer faulty. Also my mother's Touareg has flashed an engine light, she usually uses Kroger and Sam's fuel but since switching and using BP or Shell it has not been an issue.

I've heard all sorts of things about which company to use but I would like to hear everyones opinion and backed up why.

This has probably been talked about before but I feel its an important topic.

Where should I buy gas? Who has the cleanest, and best performing fuel?

I ask this as I had a fuel gauge problem and after using BP fuel it is no longer faulty. Also my mother's Touareg has flashed an engine light, she usually uses Kroger and Sam's fuel but since switching and using BP or Shell it has not been an issue.

I've heard all sorts of things about which company to use but I would like to hear everyones opinion and backed up why.

P4c

They are all the same thing..just different additives. I prefer Chevron because they use Techron. Shell uses V-Power (not sure what it does).

This has probably been talked about before but I feel its an important topic.

Where should I buy gas? Who has the cleanest, and best performing fuel?

I ask this as I had a fuel gauge problem and after using BP fuel it is no longer faulty. Also my mother's Touareg has flashed an engine light, she usually uses Kroger and Sam's fuel but since switching and using BP or Shell it has not been an issue.

I've heard all sorts of things about which company to use but I would like to hear everyones opinion and backed up why.

P4c

nice fast back.

this has been talked about to the moon and back lol
good luck keeping this thread from being locked

Locally, Super America or Speedway gas is the worst. Seriously, I KNOW they are all supposed to be the same or whatever, but SA gas would always cause our 3.0T Saab to diesel out. no one else's gas would do that.

I've only ever got bad gas once. About 20 years ago at a Texaco near San Antonio. Now, I go with whoever is cheapest. But, unlike my late Dad, I will not drive 3 miles to save a penny

I have played the cheapest gas game for a while, now I have a 24v VR with a C2 tune and i can only run 93. I'm not sure what triggered the fuel gauge to fail but I do know when I filled up with BP the problem went away.

If you are using a major brand (i.e. Exxon, Shell, Chevron, BP) the brand doesn't really matter. It's when you start getting into the cheap variations is where you can notice a change in the performance of the engine.

Typically the base formulation for gas is the same across the board, like another poster said, it's the additives that separate the pack. Like you may know, the additives are designed to help the engine run cleaner, prevent buildups, and overall perform better. If you are buying a cheaper or no-name brand gas, then you are not likely getting any additives into the gasoline formulation. There is no reason this would be bad, but you don't get the R&D behind the additives that should help do what they claim to do.

How it usually works is there is a distribution service that has the base gasoline in two octane ratiings (e.g. 87 and 91). The truck that picks up the load will be delivering to a single brand of station, so lets say Texaco. The truck will be filled with the appropriate octance gasoline for the delivery to a certain point, and then the proprietary additives (Techron) will be added into the truck within a tolerance spec range. The theory is that the turbulence created by driving will be enough to thoroughly mix the gasoline with the additives.

Now, where it can get tricky is if the truck is delivering mid-grade gas. The truck driver needs to know how much gas is left in his tank and what grade gas it is. Then he has to figure out how much of the low grade (87) and high grade (91) it would take to roughly average the mid-grade (89) on top of any remaining gas in the tank. Then he has to do the prioprietary additives as well. To me, there is no benefit of mid-grade and I would just avoid it altogether.

I used to only run Sunoco 94 in my SVTF because I thought it was the best. Then one day I had to fill up at a Marathon station with their 93 and noticed the car felt much smoother and seemed to run better. I also average about 2mpg more. I switched back and fourth a few times when I would do long drives on the highway to keep it similar and found that the numbers backed up what I was feeling. I've since used Marathon fuels almost exclusively. There's a good chance that on my old BMW I won't notice a difference at all, but I try to keep it consistent.

For a long time in Canada, Sunoco was the only one that runs 10% ethanol blend all the time, which really kills you on mileage. In my old car I'd avoid that. But nowadays with 10% being the norm I didn't really pay attention to it anymore.

If you are using a major brand (i.e. Exxon, Shell, Chevron, BP) the brand doesn't really matter. It's when you start getting into the cheap variations is where you can notice a change in the performance of the engine.

Typically the base formulation for gas is the same across the board, like another poster said, it's the additives that separate the pack. Like you may know, the additives are designed to help the engine run cleaner, prevent buildups, and overall perform better. If you are buying a cheaper or no-name brand gas, then you are not likely getting any additives into the gasoline formulation. There is no reason this would be bad, but you don't get the R&D behind the additives that should help do what they claim to do.

How it usually works is there is a distribution service that has the base gasoline in two octane ratiings (e.g. 87 and 91). The truck that picks up the load will be delivering to a single brand of station, so lets say Texaco. The truck will be filled with the appropriate octance gasoline for the delivery to a certain point, and then the proprietary additives (Techron) will be added into the truck within a tolerance spec range. The theory is that the turbulence created by driving will be enough to thoroughly mix the gasoline with the additives.

Now, where it can get tricky is if the truck is delivering mid-grade gas. The truck driver needs to know how much gas is left in his tank and what grade gas it is. Then he has to figure out how much of the low grade (87) and high grade (91) it would take to roughly average the mid-grade (89) on top of any remaining gas in the tank. Then he has to do the prioprietary additives as well. To me, there is no benefit of mid-grade and I would just avoid it altogether.

I agree with most of this but the EPA requires a minimum level of detergent in the fuel so you may get more with some brands but will get some with all.

Next is the driver of the truck/trailer doesn't figure out how to mix mid grade. The normal petroleum trailer has 4-5 compartments and no good way to figure out how much has been drained out (best system is a stick that he can put in a tank). I have always seen it put in the trailer compartment as midgrade or it is mixed at the pump as it goes in your car. That is why Sunoco can offer like 5 grades of gas.

EDIT: i just checked and its been a while since i last used 76/CP , only because there's a very convenient Chevron right of the freeday on my way to work, that gets lots of Trucks through it, so in theory fuel is always fresh there.

but when traveling outside of my normal route, nothing but 76/CP or Chevron